You’re sitting at your computer screen, hands hovering over keyboard, cup of tea going cold. You want to write the perfect tweet. But where do you start?

First, it’s worth thinking about what the perfect tweet actually is. Do you want your tweet to get a lot of replies or retweets? Maybe some favourites? What about if it went viral?

OK, so it’s pretty difficult to tell if a tweet’s going to go viral. If we could predict that we’d be millionaires here at Buzz HQ. But other than that, you want all of those things. You want it to be retweeted, you want the replies. You want people to favourite it. And ideally you’d like it to go viral, too.

So how do you achieve this? Well, first, you need to know how to engage with your audience. Who are you trying to connect with? Are you trying to inspire them, anger them? Or just a plain old simple laugh-out-loud. All of these reactions will help your tweet get those all important retweets and favourites.

As with all aspects of business you need to make sure you know your audience. Inside out. Upside down. And know what’s going to make them see your tweet and share it with others. This is the golden rule of the twitter-sphere: know thy audience. The powerful thing about twitter is that as it’s an open platform, even people who don’t follow you directly can come across your tweets through some of your followers that they are following. And so on.

So you’ve thought about your audience so much you’re even imagining what they like to eat for breakfast. But what about the tweet itself?

A great way to engage with your audience is to ask them questions. This could be something relevant to your business – or not. But it has to represent your brand, your values. You could even include some interesting facts, something that your audience would want to share with others.

If you’re the daring type, you could even write something controversial. Something different that will make you stand out above the crowd. But use this with care – you don’t want to end up alienating the very people you were hoping to engage with!

Another way to engage with your audience could be to give a fresh spin on current news or trends. Giving your opinion on trending hashtags, for example, could gain you many new followers. Keep an eye on the latest trends – it could pay dividends in followers.

Finally, including some kind of visual in your tweet can make it more interesting to your followers. You could use a photo, a video or an infographic. Using a visual cue can really help to engage with followers, old and new.